The choosing of a work by a man who had been a committed fascist sympathizer infuriated many people in Cold WarAmerica, and political pressure led Congress to end the Library of Congress's involvement in the program. The unused portion of the grant was returned to the Bollingen Foundation in 1949.[1][2][3]

The Bollingen Foundation decided to continue the program, with the administrative tasks being handled by the Yale University Library. The prize was awarded annually from 1948 to 1963. In 1963 the amount of the award was increased to $5,000, and thereafter it was given every other year. After 1968, when the Bollingen Foundation was dissolved, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation took over. In 1973 the Mellon Foundation established an endowment of $100,000 to enable the Yale Library to continue awarding the prize in perpetuity.[3]